COLUMBIA, Columbia State Community College honored 43 nursing graduates in a pinning ceremony held in the Webster Athletic Center, capping four semesters of classroom instruction and 540 clinical hours for each student who crossed the floor. The pinning ceremony is one of the oldest traditions in nursing education, a moment when faculty formally welcome new graduates into the profession, not just as credentialed technicians, but as caregivers entering a calling.
"The pinning ceremony is a time-honored tradition which allows faculty to welcome our graduates into the profession of nursing," said Dr. Loretta Bond, Columbia State nursing program director. "The evening was a memorable event for all who attended." Dr. Kae Fleming, dean of the Health Sciences Division, added that what these graduates carry into the field goes beyond clinical knowledge. "Nursing school is about much more than mastery of facts and successful checkoffs," Fleming said. "These graduates are equipped with the ability to learn continuously, a priceless skill for RNs and patients and families."
The numbers behind the program are worth noting. Columbia State nursing graduates posted a 94.8% first-attempt pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination in 2025, compared to a national average of 87.5% for associate degree nursing graduates in the same year. In 2023, the program's in-field placement rate within six to 12 months of completion was 99%. Those are not soft statistics. They reflect a program that is producing nurses who are genuinely ready to practice and who are finding work when they graduate. Maury County graduates in the spring 2026 class included Aletha Parton, Jayleah Burchell, Katherine McCraw, Alisha Jones, Kyla Polk, Kayle Hie, Jebediah Roberts, Arielle Mayes, Sarah Anye, McKinley Woodard, Timory Shaner, and Sariah Sanchez.
The graduates will now sit for the NCLEX exam to earn licensure as registered nurses. They will go to work in hospitals, long-term care facilities, clinics, schools, and home health settings, in Maury County and across Middle Tennessee. Maury Regional Medical Center, which serves as one of the region's anchor institutions, depends on a steady pipeline of trained nurses. So do the smaller clinics, the home health agencies, and the rural practices that keep care accessible across the county. Columbia State, sitting right there on Hampshire Pike, is doing the unglamorous and essential work of building that pipeline one cohort at a time. These 43 graduates are proof it is working.